Digital inclusion still slow for the disabled

Zatni Arbi , Contributor , Jakarta | Fri, 05/16/2008 12:51 PM | Supplement

The United Nations has declared May 17 as World Telecommunications and Information Society Day. It was formerly known as World Telecommunications Day to commemorate the anniversary of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). World Telecommunications and Information Society Day is annually commemorated to raise public awareness about the importance of telecommunications and the Internet to society.

As in the past years, the United Nations' General Assembly again stresses the need to provide all people with access to telecommunications and information. The focus for this year is on people with disabilities. The day is commemorated to raise public awareness of the importance of providing people with disabilities with access to information and communication technology (ICT) and the Internet.

To commemorate the day, The Jakarta Post is publishing this special report.
Supplement editor

We all know that Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone in 1876. Well, he was not the first and only. In fact, he beat Elisha Gray, who also claimed to have invented the telephone, by filing his request for a patent by just a few hours.

However, there were other interesting things about Bell in addition to his invention. Yes, the telephone system has now become the largest manmade network in the world. You can make a call to more than half of the world's population with a telephone - both fixed and mobile. Of course, the mobile telephone was not Bell's invention, but a communication marvel, anyway.

Perhaps not many of us know that, when Bell invented the telephone, he was actually trying to find a device that would allow a deaf person to communicate. It was not really a surprising fact, as he came from a family very closely associated with deafness. His mother, who was a musician, suffered from hearing loss. His father was a speech therapist for the deaf. He later married Mabel Hubbard, a student of his who had lost her hearing when she was only four.

If the telephone was indeed invented to help deaf people, it should be interesting to see what the technology has done to help the physically challenged.

More than a century later

I e-mailed Ms. Dian Syarief, a friend of mine, and asked her how technology has helped her in her daily activities. She had lost almost all of her vision due to a catastrophic misdiagnosis several years ago. Despite the challenge she has to face,still very much active in the community.the chairwoman of Care for Low Vision and Care for Lupus Sjamsi Dhuha Foundation, which promotes awareness of lupus in Indonesia. Clearly, it is impossible to be so active without the help of a cell phone.

And it should be a cell phone with a voice command feature.

Voice command is a very common feature in today's mid-range and premium cell phones. Its main use is to help us make a call without entering the number or going through the phonebook.

Sometimes also called voice recognition, voice command is a necessity for those who need to make a lot of calls while driving their cars. It is part of the hands-free paraphernalia. However, in the age of the SMS, what a person with low vision needs is a cell phone that reads the text aloud.

This means that the cell phone has to include a feature calledSynthesizer." Again, this is not really a novel application, particularly on a personal computer. The first voice synthesizer I ever played around with many years ago produced an alien-like speech, and I didn't find it useful in serious work. However, voice synthesizing has improved a lot since the 1990s. On the cell phone, the more widely used term for this applicationor TTS.

"I use a talking phone," Ms. Syarief told me in her reply e-mail. She's using a Nokia N-Gage equipped with a talk application that helps her read and write SMSes. Apparently, it's a third-party application. Nonetheless, according to Regina Hutama, Nokia Indonesia's Corporate Communication Manager, Nokia makes several cell phones with built-in TTS. Some models also read aloud the name of the caller instead of only flashing the caller's ID or phone number on the screen.also made a headset specifically designed for the hearing impaired," she told me in her e-mail. It was the LPS-4 Inductive Loopset, and it can be used by people who wear T-coil hearing aids.

One of the challenges faced by those with low vision -especially when using a phone with a high resolution and full color screenis the tiny characters. While our eyes seem to be adaptive enough to learn to read those Lilliputian characters, it is always a big effort. Some cell phones and smart phones, including the BlackBerrys and Motorola's MOTO Q Series, allow us to increase the font size. Other cell phone makers add the zoom function to make reading the text less torture. Unfortunately, choosing larger fonts mean less content can be displayed at once.

Motorola has also been including several assistive features in many of its products. Its "Talking Phone" feature will read aloud the digits that a user enters as he makes a call. This feature is available, for example, in Motorola ROKR E6, E8, RAZR V and V9.

Smart, the cell phone vendor from Thailand, has also implemented the feature that reads the digits aloud in its I-Mobile 520, for example. An interesting thing about this model is that it also has a Talking Dictionary in a few different languages.

What about other cell phone makers such as LG Mobile? "In 2002, we released G510 that came with a TTS," said John Halim, LG Indonesia Product Marketing Manager, "but it turned out that the feature was not very popular." However, the new KF300, which is a 2008 product, lets the user choose between five different font sizes from small to extra large. "Combined with a large LCD display, this feature makes it easier for older users to read the screen," he added.

Like I-Mobile and the other models that read aloud the key being pressed, LG Mobile also adds a feature that reads the phone number of the caller. The cell phone maker calls this feature Intelligent Alert, and it is available on KP320, KP220, KG300, KG200 and KG195.

The Computer and Internet

Computer operating systems - including, especially, Mac OS and Microsoft Windows - now have voice command and TTS capabilities, too. Your notebooks and desktop computers are more likely than not to have the necessary hardware, such as built-in microphone and speakers.

Not all applications support voice recognition and TTS, though. However, Microsoft Office applications do, and a user can input text by talking to the microphone. On the computer, the other term usually used to refer to voice synthesizer is Screen Reader, which will read aloud everything on the screenincluding text and graphics. If you see a Language Bar on your Windows screen, that's the place to find the tools that you need. It also allows you to access features related to East Asian languages. Mona Monika, Microsoft Indonesia's Communication Manager, told me that we can learn more about Microsoft's contribution to making the computers more useful to people with physical limitations at www.microsoft.com/enable/guides/default.aspx.

Incidentally, time and time again I come across a computer user who's still using the standard mouse pointer, which people with low vision usually find difficult to spot. The remedy is actually very easy. Just go to the Control Panel, click on Mouse and then change the pointer to Large. My personal preference is the Inverted Extra Large pointer set, and it helps me as I, too, have a low-vision problem.

Not having access to all the information and knowledge available on the Web is now a huge stumbling block. Fortunately, voice synthesizers are available on the Web, too. It helps not only the disabled but also those who want to learn a new language. Just go to www.merriam-webster.com /dictionary/, andbe able to listen to the pronunciation. Of course, you'll need a fast connection to get the best audio experience.

Users of Firefox browser can download the Open Source-based Fire Vox (www.firevox.clcworld.net), and it is free. It's just one example of what is available to help people who cannot read the screen as easily as normal people.

Still, if you think about it, Bell invented the telephone while working to help people with a disability. Isn't it rather disheartening to see how slow progress has been in the creation of telecommunication technologies to help the same group of people? What we have is just a list of features that may be available in some general-purpose products but not in products specifically dedicated for the disabled.

Perhapstime for cell phone makers and other telecommunication technology providers to produce killer applications that would greatly help those who are physically challenged and maximize their productivity.

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